My way on the highway

How cool is that? I hope this bullishness continues:-D ET

Yesterday I had the most brilliant time. I've realized over the past nine months that I am a people person. I seem to get a high by just talking and interacting with people from different cultures and places. I feel like I've won a prize everytime I do that. Yesterday I met some wonderful people who all had some connection to Haiti. I learnt about the country, the poverty and the cabola dance. Apparently the cabola is sensuos dance form. It is the dance of love as they call it. The cabola music reminded me of being vaguely caribbean in nature. The language creole is so close to french so I was again very taken in by the whole thing. I met some selfless doctors who like working in third world countries. It was a refereshing experience to meet so many different kind of people in the same room. Haiti is one of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, 80% of the population lives in abject poverty, and natural disasters frequently sweep the nation. Two-thirds of all Haitians

Today I watched rang de basanthi and was reminded of the fun times I had at college. In fact those boys just reminded me of boys in my college:) And that song Roobaroo is so beautiful, I mean it's just a simple strum on the guitar. I think AR Rehman has got a perfect voice for such earthy songs. The start "Eh saala"! Wow romba super! Today I spoke with one of really good friends after a really long time. I realized how long it's been since I spoke in tamil:) and been out of touch with madras bashai! Finally end this post with a great TR like dialog Engg college lla padicha engineer aaga mudiyum anna... Presidency college lla padicha president aaga mudiyama???? Summa superaaahh! I'm in the mood.

Sometimes there is a song stuck in your head and no matter what you do, it never goes out of your mind. Most of these songs are cheesiest tamil or hindi numbers. SO I think of other songs to prevent these raunchy numbers from replaying in my mind. I wonder if this happens to a lot of people?? So today I woke up and while I was humming to myself in the shower, what should be the song that props up?? "Ramnarayan" (that cheesy govinda number) !YES!!! So that just would not get out of my mind. So I tried remembering other songs. I had a lot of wierd songs playing in my mind all throughout this morning because of that. I tried "sound of music" ('Maria and being nunly'). Then because of that hangover I had "I am sixteen.." going on. I infact told this guy "you need someone to care of you"! He thought I was mad. Now "turn me on" by Norah Jones. Atleast it is better than last week's "kaizaloo". Yeah blame it on my limite

I was wondering whether I should blog this or not. But I simply could not resist. So I am:) What a great explanation! Well so last week they had this old books sale at the university and there was this illustrated history of 'The Doors' and I was sure I had to buy it. So I did and spent a pricely sum for a student (Now people tell me it's okay, I don't have to crib). So this week we have vacations and I'm doing all the things one does during a break. So coming back to the or rather magazine which basically traces the group's history. It was so intense. I would definitely recommend the weak hearted to read a couple of pages a day. Those who can't tear themselves from a book will have to exercise more caution. Take breaks and read it because it is heavy. I mean I'm really not someone into Freud and Maharishi Yogi's teachings. I don't know, I thought it's cool to be a rebel. You know the typical fitting into the "intellectual mould".

I feel all grown up. Catching a metro in some strange town (read virginia:-)). Managing quite comfortably. It's nice, I mean doing it in India was an experience in itself and now here....what can I say. I'm all grown up.

Today I attended the most brilliant technical talk in ages. Grady Booch was at SEI and boy was he good! He can be called the founders of software abstractions and the thinking on software architectures. His prediction is that next generation there would be more emphasis on frameworks and less on actual coding. I can see that happening. I also like the fact that he acknowledged that one would need something more robust than UML. God knows maybe ABEL groups Acme language could become defacto standard. Maybe I could shoot into fame. This project is so cool. Wish I could get into more of the modelling aspect though. Another thing that baffles me still is complexity of algorithms. Even here most people are not very clear about the nlogn notation. So It's fast but proove it. Lets see maybe suddenly it would dawn on me. Anyway none of what I code is that fast. Imagine o(n). I'm sure those google folks have that solved. Phew!!!!!!!!!!!

I was reading news online today after a chat with my sister. She asked me to check out the UC banerjee report. I just did that and am shocked! 54 hindus and 789 muslims killed. The politicians play a dirty game and justify the "Godhra" massacre. Most people killed were women and that too brutally raped. The UC banerjee report claims that the fire was caused by some inflammable liquid. Can you believe that? I mean there were no muslims who burned coaches s6 and s7 carrying the karsevaks. I just cannot imagine those 789 people, predominantly women,were raped and killed, for nothing!!!! What is happening to this world? My fellow bloggers as well as readers--> read this Objectifying women. Men will always do that. There goes the "chick"! I guess it is so deep rooted that one believes that by raping women one is powerful. Excerpts from the above link " And we see it clearly, I believe, in Gujarat. Muslim female bodies symbolize a recalcitrant part of the nation

I decided to spruce up my life and what better way I thought, than to get groovy doing the salsa! I also secretly looked at it as an option to meet a lot of new people. Or so I hoped:-( I was in for a rude shock. I entered the UC gym and I see a bunch of desis. What's with us? ARe we the only folks who don't mind making fools of ourselves? Anyway there were some other folks too and so we did the cha cha 1234 and it was nice. I mean it's not as vigorous as the hip hop intro I took last semester. So I'm sure this is not going to help with the weight department. Then I keep thinking we have one life, who makes the rules?? And plus I think fat people are so cute. I mean they always seem happy. LIke today the first partner I had was a fat guy. He reminded me of Adnam sami. He said something like "I'm arroyo or some such name". Anyway what I'm trying to say is that he had a really cheerful disposition and that's what mattered! Back to salsa jig, the inst